Unsure Leadership
by notawuss
Summary: A man is promoted from marine, being forced to dawn the suit of a ghost. His first battle as a commander leaves him with huge problems. Rated R for violence and language.
1. Chapter 1

Title

Unsure Leadership

"5 minutes till arrival, move quickly and good luck." I could tell most of the men on the ship with me had never been in battle before. They are easily spotted by the pools of puke gathering around their feet. I knew that the majority of them wouldn't be alive in an hour, but that's not my problem, command would just set me up with another group.

Me, I would rather be in their shoes. I used to be a marine, and I loved it. For some reason they decided to promote me and give me a squad. I didn't follow orders myself, now they have me giving them? But one thing is for sure, I'm good, really good. 

In our last battle, we were getting overrun by the zerg. I used my stim-pack, the adrenaline rushed through me and I charged. The overlord, I had to get rid of it. A hydralisk spotted me and stuck a needle spine in my shoulder. I stumbled and spun around, putting an entire clip into the hydralisk, enjoying the sight of its brains shooting out the other side. Thrusting myself onward, I saw the overlord turn to get away from me. I jumped as far as my body would allow, grabbing onto the overlord's skin. I unhooked the grenade from my belt, and thrusted it into the overlord's ventral sacs. As I dropped from the overlord, I heard the explosion followed by a rain of burning flesh. My CO must've been at the comsat station, because as soon as I returned to what was left of the base, he called me in. 

"Fredricks, you have been impressing me lately. How would you like to have your own squad." What in the hell do you say to that except yes? So that's exactly what I said. The biggest drawback, I was forced to dawn the suit of a ghost. I loved being a marine, and now that's gone. 

Well now you know how I got here, I guess I should say where I'm going. A small outpost has fallen under attack by the zerg, and they have been fighting continuously for 27 hours, we are the reinforcements. 

"30 seconds till arrival." It sang in my ears, time for sweet battle. The battlefield is my home, it's where I'm at my best. "Ok everybody, here we go. Clear the dropship, find some cover, and start on the zerg. Keep blasting away until you receive further orders from me." 

The landing ramp started to lower, I felt the andrenaline rushing into my limbs. "Go, go, go," I yelled to clear my men from the ship. I flew forward, readying my C-10 canister launcher, rushing to the first bunker I saw. "Where in the hell is your commander?" I asked a nearby marine. He pointed to a bunker about 30 yards away. I turned to run to their leader, but noticed I had no need to. As I turned I saw a needle spine rip through his neck. "Damnit!" I turned to the marine I spoke with before, but he laid on the flood, a glave worm had taken the bottom half of his body clean off. So I asked the next one down. "Do you have any other officers here?" 

"Not that are alive, it looks like you just took command of the base."

Why in the hell did this happen to me? My first battle as an officer and I was already in control of an entire base. "If I die, you get command," I figured he was as good a man as any. Enough of this shit for me, I'm getting in the battle. I grabbed the gauss rifle from the dead marine and slung it around my shoulder. Let's see if the cloaking device I was issued works. I flipped it on and became invisible. I stepped out and jumped into a trench. A fresh zergling rush had just started. I started blowing holes into their advancing lines. I glanced over as a zergling ripped the arms off of a firebat. Blowing the zergling off of his body, I let him call for his own medic. I could tell that this was a losing defensive battle, so I decided to go on the offensive. I called for 3 marines and 3 firebats as backup. "We're going for the overlord, we kill him and the swarm will scatter."

I took the stim-pack from a fallen firebat. Plunging myself into a world of pain, I felt myself grow stronger. Rushing from the trench blasting, watching the bodies of zerg be blown apart by my C-10 canisters. "Die you sons of bitches," I yelled as I ran forward. 2 of the firebats had already fallen, and a marine had a zergling feasting on his organs. I was suddenly dropped to the floor by a needle spine through my calf. I grabbed the gauss rifle from my shoulder, rolled over, and punched the neck out of a hydralisk. Pulling the needle spine from my leg, I thrusted myself under the overlord. I started unloading clips into it. "Firebat, get your ass over here," I screamed, thinking up an idea. "Take off your fuel tank." 

"Sir?" He was completely puzzled.

"Just do it, now." He handed me the tank, and I threw it as hard as I could. It stuck right below his ventral sacs. I let a C-10 canister loose. It ignited the fuel, immediately setting him aflame. "Time to get back to base and clean up, take this." I handed him my C-10 canister launcher. I started to run, but the firebat wasn't so lucky. As soon as he turned, a zergling emerged from it's burrowed position. It pinned its claws into his shoulders, then ripped its teeth into the poor guys face.

As I returned to the base, the zerg forces were falling back. I took a second to look around at my base. Here I am, only been in a command position for 4 days, and now I have an entire base. To make things worse, most of the buildings were heavily damaged, and over half of my men were injured. The field hospital was overfilled, so medics were tending to men outside. I made my way to the command center. I found a guy who seemed to know his way around. 

"Could you point me to the command room, I think I just took over."

"Uh, yes sir," he replied hesitantly.

I followed him up the hall and up an elevator, turning the corner we came to the command room. I walked in, and one of the men came up to me.

"I heard about your arrival, I know you probably didn't plan on this, but you're our new CO." He showed me to my seat, let me review the situation on the multiple data screens before me, then asked, "So, what do we do now sir?"


	2. Chapter 2

"Sir, it's an emergency, get up." A young marine burst into my room.

"Oh shit," I mumbled under my breath.

He rushed me into the command room. "We just received this transmission from the battlecruiser Condalta." A picture snapped onto the screen.

"Mayday, mayday, we have fallen under attack from zerg forces. We need immediate assistance. If anyone is out there, please assist."

"Sir, I'm prepared to lead an extraction team heading to that position," an cocky young firebat stood up.

I sat in deep thought, till it struck me. This was my way out of here. "No, that won't be necessary. I will be leading the team. Get all the men who are trained for this outside immediately."

"Sir, shouldn't you stay here and run things?"

I had forgotten this one thing. I was the highest ranking officer. If I was going, I had to promote someone. Who in the hell would I choose? WAIT, I had already chosen, the first day in the bunker. "Get Private Sandberg up here now."

A few minutes later Sandberg arrived. "Well private, I'm not dead but I am leaving. You remember what I told you, you just got yourself a base."

He stood there speechless, then sat down as I walked out of the room. Since I hadn't been here long, I really didn't know anybody that well. So when I got outside, I just picked the guys who looked like the rebels. I figured they would fit right in with me.

"We don't really have the equipment for this sir, so the most I can do is tell you where they are." The private handed me a small positioning system. 

"We will be leaving in approximately 4 hours," I was speaking to the men going with me, "Get some sleep and report to the briefing room in 3 hours." I figured I would do the same. When I arrived in the briefing room, everyone was already there. "This isn't to complicated, we are going to assist the crew of battlecruiser Condalta. In and out, we'll make up a plan as we go." Playing it by ear is the best way I could command. "Everyone do final checks on supplies, then meet me outside, it's time to get going."

Things were moving quickly enough, a few days ago I was a marine, my only goal was to complete my mission. Now I was telling other guys what to do, having to decide what the next move is. My men came one by one out of the command center. I looked them over, 5 marines,2 firebats, and a medic. I gathered them together and we started off. We would be traveling through zerg controlled areas, so we expected a little fighting. But the first attack came much faster than expected. We had gotten about 450 yards from the base perimeter, 6 zerglings jumped from our right. Meyer, on of my firebats, spun around, flamethrowers blazing, quickly engulfing 2 of the zerglings in flames. I saw one jumping at Nathan, a marine, and quickly fired a canister. It exploded right in front of the monster, blowing all of its limbs off. Turning around, I saw Brommer blowing away a zergling which had just stabbed its claw into his foot. One more rolled in front of him, flesh searing from the flames shooting off his body. I took care of the last one with a canister, hitting right below it, blowing it straight up about 15 feet. 

"Everyone ok?" I yelled out. Our medic, Patefield, was working on Brommer's foot. Everyone else had gotten through unscathed. "Looks like they aren't gonna give us a break, lets keep moving, and keep your eyes open."

We got a long way before stopping for a meal. We rested under a small rock, preparing the food. Of course, I knew that the zerg patrols would smell this and come running, so I advised some of the men to start setting up some crude defenses from the surrounding rocks. I had just taken my first bite when Grunke came running from the lookout point. 

"Three hydralisks, coming this way slowly."

I jumped up and ran to the point, they were stopped about 30 feet away, I believe they were smelling for us. "Alright, everyone to positions, let's get rid of them quick." Everyone scurried to there positions. Grunke was set up in a small hole to the side, he would jump out and started burning up the rear hydralisk. As soon as he popped up, I rolled out of my hiding spot, quickly taking aim. I saw the flames leap from Grunke's flamethrowers, taking over the rear. My first shot dropped below its target, making the hydralisk tumble over. As I pulled up for another shot, the hydralisk's head was shattered, being torn apart by the gauss rifle of Staub. The last hydralisk wasn't firing, it was just turning around, looking confused. Patefield hat treated it to an optic flare, leaving it completely blind. I pulled away and let Meyer toast it. We stood waiting for a few minutes before returning to finish eating, expecting more of an attack.

The way I figured, we would have to stay one night in the wilderness, and we would reach the Condalta around noon the next day. So I had everyone clean up quickly and get ready to move. We marched on the rest of the day with no resistance. Finding a suitable place, we set up camp and began our rest, keeping two guards out all the time.

Looking back now, I'm guessing we must have been watched during one of our earlier battles, because the zerg were readying an attack on the Condalta that night, of course I wish I would've known this at the time. We awoke ready to move, and had packed up and left within 15 minutes. My men felt refreshed and eager, so we took on a faster pace. As we got closer to the area where the transmission came from, we heard a lot of noise. It sounded like a battle was going on ahead. Full of curiosity, we rushed ahead, coming to a small cliff, we saw what was going on. We had found the Condalta, and they were under attack, zerg had three sides of the ship surrounded, we were on the fourth. 

"Ok boys, listen up, we came here to rescue that ship, and that is what is gonna happen," I tried to spark the fighting spirit in these men. We worked out a small flank, the left wing of the zerg forces was smaller, we would move in from the side and scatter that force, then make our way towards the Condalta. Not waiting for the ship's crew to take more casualties we ran forward, quickly getting into the battle. My firebats were blowing away, my marines unloading clips into the crowd, me blowing apart zerg, and my medic scrambling around doing numerous things. I flew in fast, my first victim a zergling, he had his mouth open, running at me. I put a shot right into his waiting jaws, then watched with pleasure as his chest blew open. Next I moved on to help two of my boys with an ultralisk. They were firing away, trying to keep their distance from this monster. I waited for the opportunity, than jumped up onto its back. I had only dealt with one of these before, and all I knew is that the aren't very smart. This in mind I had an idea, I would make it stab itself. I fired right in front of it, then started kicking it. It stopped running after my men and reared up. Then it brought one of its claws swinging towards me. Waiting till it was about 5 feet away, I quickly rolled out of the way. Its claw dug into its body, making a deep cut. Then I rolled over to the wound and let a canister penetrate into its body. The creature gave a quick whimper, then both of its left legs were ripped off, along with most of its bottom side. As it fell I leaped off, turned and finished it off with another blow. A quick glance around the field brought me to see Nathan, he was running towards a zergling when a needle spine drove into his helmet. The point drove through the other side, and he dropped instantly.

"Shit, we can't afford the losses."

My other men seemed to be working fine, except for Meyer, who had Patefield working on a needle spine wound in his shoulder. The zerg on this side were surrounded, and I could tell that the men from the Condalta were happy to see us. A few minutes later we had broken through and were rushing to the battlecruiser. The majority of the zerg forces were on the other side of the ship, and I rushed my men around. I directed my men toward the center, hoping to split the forces. I picked my target, there was a defiler on a hill about 100 yards in. Glancing around and not seeing any overlords in the area, I switched on my cloaking device. As I ran through the field, I took shots at zerglings. One shot hit a zergling in the neck, ripping his head apart. All of the sudden I tripped. A quick look showed me my obstacle, Johnson, nothing left of his body from the chest up, was lying there. My first shot didn't do much damage, but it sent the defiler into a roll. It rolled straight into a small group of firebats, who lit it aflame. Then I finished it off, it jumped up to extinguish the fire, and I blew its stomach open. I stood up, readying my gun for more, but the area was cleared. The zerg were retreating, so I returned to the Condalta.

"I don't know who the hell you are, but thank god," was the response from the commander.

"Fredricks, and a few others in my squad."

"What is your mission?"

"I was hoping you could answer that question."


	3. Chapter 2

"Sir, it's an emergency, get up." A young marine burst into my room.

"Oh shit," I mumbled under my breath.

He rushed me into the command room. "We just received this transmission from the battlecruiser Condalta." A picture snapped onto the screen.

"Mayday, mayday, we have fallen under attack from zerg forces. We need immediate assistance. If anyone is out there, please assist."

"Sir, I'm prepared to lead an extraction team heading to that position," an cocky young firebat stood up.

I sat in deep thought, till it struck me. This was my way out of here. "No, that won't be necessary. I will be leading the team. Get all the men who are trained for this outside immediately."

"Sir, shouldn't you stay here and run things?"

I had forgotten this one thing. I was the highest ranking officer. If I was going, I had to promote someone. Who in the hell would I choose? WAIT, I had already chosen, the first day in the bunker. "Get Private Sandberg up here now."

A few minutes later Sandberg arrived. "Well private, I'm not dead but I am leaving. You remember what I told you, you just got yourself a base."

He stood there speechless, then sat down as I walked out of the room. Since I hadn't been here long, I really didn't know anybody that well. So when I got outside, I just picked the guys who looked like the rebels. I figured they would fit right in with me.

"We don't really have the equipment for this sir, so the most I can do is tell you where they are." The private handed me a small positioning system. 

"We will be leaving in approximately 4 hours," I was speaking to the men going with me, "Get some sleep and report to the briefing room in 3 hours." I figured I would do the same. When I arrived in the briefing room, everyone was already there. "This isn't to complicated, we are going to assist the crew of battlecruiser Condalta. In and out, we'll make up a plan as we go." Playing it by ear is the best way I could command. "Everyone do final checks on supplies, then meet me outside, it's time to get going."

Things were moving quickly enough, a few days ago I was a marine, my only goal was to complete my mission. Now I was telling other guys what to do, having to decide what the next move is. My men came one by one out of the command center. I looked them over, 5 marines,2 firebats, and a medic. I gathered them together and we started off. We would be traveling through zerg controlled areas, so we expected a little fighting. But the first attack came much faster than expected. We had gotten about 450 yards from the base perimeter, 6 zerglings jumped from our right. Meyer, on of my firebats, spun around, flamethrowers blazing, quickly engulfing 2 of the zerglings in flames. I saw one jumping at Nathan, a marine, and quickly fired a canister. It exploded right in front of the monster, blowing all of its limbs off. Turning around, I saw Brommer blowing away a zergling which had just stabbed its claw into his foot. One more rolled in front of him, flesh searing from the flames shooting off his body. I took care of the last one with a canister, hitting right below it, blowing it straight up about 15 feet. 

"Everyone ok?" I yelled out. Our medic, Patefield, was working on Brommer's foot. Everyone else had gotten through unscathed. "Looks like they aren't gonna give us a break, lets keep moving, and keep your eyes open."

We got a long way before stopping for a meal. We rested under a small rock, preparing the food. Of course, I knew that the zerg patrols would smell this and come running, so I advised some of the men to start setting up some crude defenses from the surrounding rocks. I had just taken my first bite when Grunke came running from the lookout point. 

"Three hydralisks, coming this way slowly."

I jumped up and ran to the point, they were stopped about 30 feet away, I believe they were smelling for us. "Alright, everyone to positions, let's get rid of them quick." Everyone scurried to there positions. Grunke was set up in a small hole to the side, he would jump out and started burning up the rear hydralisk. As soon as he popped up, I rolled out of my hiding spot, quickly taking aim. I saw the flames leap from Grunke's flamethrowers, taking over the rear. My first shot dropped below its target, making the hydralisk tumble over. As I pulled up for another shot, the hydralisk's head was shattered, being torn apart by the gauss rifle of Staub. The last hydralisk wasn't firing, it was just turning around, looking confused. Patefield hat treated it to an optic flare, leaving it completely blind. I pulled away and let Meyer toast it. We stood waiting for a few minutes before returning to finish eating, expecting more of an attack.

The way I figured, we would have to stay one night in the wilderness, and we would reach the Condalta around noon the next day. So I had everyone clean up quickly and get ready to move. We marched on the rest of the day with no resistance. Finding a suitable place, we set up camp and began our rest, keeping two guards out all the time.

Looking back now, I'm guessing we must have been watched during one of our earlier battles, because the zerg were readying an attack on the Condalta that night, of course I wish I would've known this at the time. We awoke ready to move, and had packed up and left within 15 minutes. My men felt refreshed and eager, so we took on a faster pace. As we got closer to the area where the transmission came from, we heard a lot of noise. It sounded like a battle was going on ahead. Full of curiosity, we rushed ahead, coming to a small cliff, we saw what was going on. We had found the Condalta, and they were under attack, zerg had three sides of the ship surrounded, we were on the fourth. 

"Ok boys, listen up, we came here to rescue that ship, and that is what is gonna happen," I tried to spark the fighting spirit in these men. We worked out a small flank, the left wing of the zerg forces was smaller, we would move in from the side and scatter that force, then make our way towards the Condalta. Not waiting for the ship's crew to take more casualties we ran forward, quickly getting into the battle. My firebats were blowing away, my marines unloading clips into the crowd, me blowing apart zerg, and my medic scrambling around doing numerous things. I flew in fast, my first victim a zergling, he had his mouth open, running at me. I put a shot right into his waiting jaws, then watched with pleasure as his chest blew open. Next I moved on to help two of my boys with an ultralisk. They were firing away, trying to keep their distance from this monster. I waited for the opportunity, than jumped up onto its back. I had only dealt with one of these before, and all I knew is that the aren't very smart. This in mind I had an idea, I would make it stab itself. I fired right in front of it, then started kicking it. It stopped running after my men and reared up. Then it brought one of its claws swinging towards me. Waiting till it was about 5 feet away, I quickly rolled out of the way. Its claw dug into its body, making a deep cut. Then I rolled over to the wound and let a canister penetrate into its body. The creature gave a quick whimper, then both of its left legs were ripped off, along with most of its bottom side. As it fell I leaped off, turned and finished it off with another blow. A quick glance around the field brought me to see Nathan, he was running towards a zergling when a needle spine drove into his helmet. The point drove through the other side, and he dropped instantly.

"Shit, we can't afford the losses."

My other men seemed to be working fine, except for Meyer, who had Patefield working on a needle spine wound in his shoulder. The zerg on this side were surrounded, and I could tell that the men from the Condalta were happy to see us. A few minutes later we had broken through and were rushing to the battlecruiser. The majority of the zerg forces were on the other side of the ship, and I rushed my men around. I directed my men toward the center, hoping to split the forces. I picked my target, there was a defiler on a hill about 100 yards in. Glancing around and not seeing any overlords in the area, I switched on my cloaking device. As I ran through the field, I took shots at zerglings. One shot hit a zergling in the neck, ripping his head apart. All of the sudden I tripped. A quick look showed me my obstacle, Johnson, nothing left of his body from the chest up, was lying there. My first shot didn't do much damage, but it sent the defiler into a roll. It rolled straight into a small group of firebats, who lit it aflame. Then I finished it off, it jumped up to extinguish the fire, and I blew its stomach open. I stood up, readying my gun for more, but the area was cleared. The zerg were retreating, so I returned to the Condalta.

"I don't know who the hell you are, but thank god," was the response from the commander.

"Fredricks, and a few others in my squad."

"What is your mission?"

"I was hoping you could answer that question."


End file.
